We Agreed to Ascend Together, and You Faked Your Death?

Gentle and refined, pretending to be aloof but secretly passionate, fiercely protective, and tough when pushed too far: the gong vs.

Carefree (?), cold on the inside, sensitive and insecure, lovesick: the shou

[Important: Shou darling's insecurity only lasts for the few days immediately after they reunite, and is only directed at the gong. His senior quickly helps him regain his confidence. Whether early or late in the story, he always acts outrageously cool and cocky in front of other people.]

Two rounds of breaking up and getting back together / unconventional faked death (both) / supernatural tales / cultivation and monster hunting / coming of age / older gong / bittersweet

Ren Changming was originally the second son of the Ren family of Qielan.

He was the person everyone thought most likely to become Qielan's next sect leader, a peerless genius at the top of the noble clans' disciples list, blessed with extraordinary talent and capable of wielding both sword and bow with ease.

Then his parentage was exposed: he was not the sect leader's son, but the son of the sect leader's younger sister.

By the time he learned this news, which overturned everything he had believed for the first eighteen years of his life, both his birth parents had already died together for love.

I'm an orphan? Ren Changming was shocked and could hardly accept it.

Later, his core was cut out, his spiritual powers severed, his sword broken and his bow lost. The once lofty flower fell from its pedestal overnight.

The noble clan disciple who had once stood above everyone, and had been most likely to ascend to immortality, became a cripple with no spiritual power. Someone else might have found a rope and hanged himself.

The Ren family announced his death, and everyone believed he was dead.

Unfortunately for him, he was hard to kill. At death's door, he was rescued by a man who claimed to have once served his father, and escaped with him to the north.

The man brought him to the northern lands, then left him to fend for himself.

Three years after faking his death, the young man's spirited ambition had almost entirely faded. He was perfectly content with an ordinary life of collecting junk and going hungry every other day, and even enjoyed it.

He often said that he had lost his spiritual powers, not his life. Why kill himself when he was doing just fine?

But what cultivator didn't value spiritual power more than life itself? Only Ren Changming was shameless enough not to.

Chu Yun was a disciple of a reputable orthodox sect, trained at Pinglin and the sect leader's legitimate youngest son.

Chu Yun had it all: a good family, a handsome face, and an even better temperament. Gentle and refined, he spoke softly, and everyone praised him as a promising young talent.

Few people knew that Chu Yun had once been Ren Changming's senior brother, and the two had shared a bed for more than seven years.

Even fewer knew that after Ren Changming “died,” Chu Yun had gone mad, digging through graves and tombs, searching desperately for him for three years.

When they met again, the brothers who had once fought side by side as equals were now worlds apart. It was heartbreaking to see.

Everyone waited, openly and behind their backs, to see Ren Changming make a fool of himself.

Chu Yun, however, was troubled: What should he do with his junior brother?

Eventually, he came up with a brilliant plan: take the little liar back to Qielan and keep him confined at Lianjing Residence, so he could never go out and deceive anyone again. (Translation: so he could never leave him again.)

That makes sense, sure, but why are you kissing?!

So you were keeping him as your cultivation partner, your wife!

Just as Ren Changming had grown used to his “married life” with his senior brother,

disaster struck Qielan. The Ren sect leader was murdered, and Shichuan Terrace was massacred.

Every piece of evidence pointed to Chu Yun, but Ren Changming absolutely refused to believe his senior brother could do such a thing.

But his senior brother had disappeared.

The once-elegant young man became a sinner in the eyes of every sect. Everyone said he had killed himself to escape punishment.

Ren Changming didn't want to believe it, but his senior brother had been gone for seven years, without a trace or a clue.

If his senior brother were still alive, he would surely come find him.

But he didn't.

For those seven years, Ren Changming helped the young master of the Ren family rebuild Shichuan Terrace while searching for his senior brother. The longer it went on, the fainter his hope became.

In the seventh year, he met a “crippled” shopkeeper in the lawless ancient city. The man's eyes were covered with cloth, and his face was impossible to see clearly.

“Shopkeeper, you look a little like my senior brother,” Ren Changming said with a silly smile, drunk out of his mind.

The shopkeeper pushed him away.

Ren Changming was then poisoned by corpse venom and rescued by a wandering cultivator. The cultivator treated him behind a screen, wearing a veiled hat.

So fragrant...

Ren Changming thought he had gone crazy from looking for his senior brother. Now everyone looked like him.

[Bonus scene]

This medicine cultivator was going too far.

Even though he knew Ren Changming was already spoken for, he still took every opportunity to touch him, holding Ren Changming's earlobe between his lips and gripping his precious parts.

“Do you like this?”

“What would your cultivation partner say if they found out?”

Ren Changming came to his senses with a start. His senior brother would beat him to death if he found out...

An affair meant being thrown into a pig cage!

A story about brothers roaming the world with their swords, fighting monsters and raising children (not having children).

Chu Tiancheng x Ren Changming

Chu Yun x Ren Yu

[Reader's Guide]

1. Both are pure in body and heart; happy ending. No third parties or misunderstandings. They choose each other and trust one another from beginning to end.

2. Extensive original worldbuilding; this is not a conventional cultivation setting, and everything serves the plot.

3. There are five volumes; the story is currently in volume two.

4. The shou faked his death for three years, the gong for seven.

5. The shou swears and speaks very bluntly, even rather rudely, and has done so since childhood. But he absolutely never does so in front of his senior brother. He thinks swearing would make him a bad boy and wants to keep up his good-boy image in front of him (imagine a cat deliberately acting cute for its owner).

Theme: Kindness is a beautiful virtue.